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Cancer Gang

by Julie Bolitho-Lee

initiation
is painful
but quick
before
you know
you've signed up
been beaten
down
you're enrolled
entangled
in a web
created by circumstance
your friends
your family
do not understand
why you accept
the inevitable
they are mad
frustrated
scared
as you are branded
by gang symbols
scars and funny haircuts
you're labeled
titled
and it's not just
for a day
week
month
year
you're a lifer
many die
trying
to get out
others give it up
give in
to the new code words
time tables
to the abandonment
of a life previous
some survive
the last
beating
gang bang
but they remember
that once you're in
you're in
and something can always
lurk
beneath
the shadows
of your skin

Julie Bolitho-Lee originates from northern Michigan and she uses her hand as a map when pointing to her hometown; however she currently lives in Oxford, England with her husband and their menagerie of rescue animals. Her poem, "The Cancer Gang," was written ten years ago when she underwent cancer treatments during her second year of university.